Step 5: Putting it together

Step 6: Video of Working Device + Review

OMG It works. Flawlessly I might add. Both my GF and I will use this and we have radically different head sizes so I left the wire between the ph...

My ears get real cold. Plus they hurt like crazy when it's cold and I use ear buds. Solution, hack some earphones into a spare pair of earmuffs. This fun Instructable includes using a dremel, sugru, listening to music and keeping your ears warm. What's not to love. Certainly I'm not the first bloke to think of this idea. I searched for a commercially avialiable product; they range from $15-$60 US dollars. Crazy. I have all the components laying around and really want a Vagisoft Blanket. It sounds real cumphy. So here is this Ible for your reading pleasure.

Throughout this Instructable will be ALOT of notation on photos. Please view them to really see what's going on. There will be alot of photo notes, especially on step 3.

Step 1: The Parts

Like so many great recipes, when there are few ingredients, make em count. I'm upcycling quality parts here. One pair of Polaroid earphones from a portable DVD player. And one pair of earmuffs. These are the kind of ear muffs that go behind your head and not on top of it. I've found that above the head earmuffs give some pretty serious muff head. Not cool man. And I couldn't find the exact pair of really Muffy style earguards. I wanted a nice leopard print to match these LED-slippers/, but I just couldn't find em at the usual Big Box dives.

Step 2: Capt safety

Ok, we're going to dremel some plastic. Don't Be Stupid. Wear appropriate protection. Eyewear and Lung mask are a must. Long sleeves and cheap maker clothing are also recommended. A Tyvek suite would be awesome, but I don't have one of those.

Step 3: Earphone Teardown

This is the bulk of this Ible. These need the most modding to fit the application we want to use them for. Polaroid made these earphones bulky and excessive. We want them slim and trim. So begins the hacking of my current "old school" ear phones down to just the basic speaker.

Hey, I just finished a pair, I found some super thin pezo electric crystal (What normal quality tweeters are made) head phones. The ear muffs don't bulge at all! And oddly enough, even though their pezo electric, they still have a great low end range... Just leaving in a few mins to the hill

It's exactly what you did here, just so happen the headphones I had, had piezo electric drivers. Took the speakers off the headphones, slid them into the ear-muffs after ripping the seam a bit, problem is I didn't add back a stitch or two to hold the speakers in place, and the space was a bit too big, so they slid around a bit inside the ear muff, no big deal. Worked amazing for skiing, fit under my ear protectors too

Cutting mine out of the plastic and adding the sugru solved those problems. I'm thinking the diameter of your piezo housing(all that plastic) added just enough so you had to rip that bottom area enough. Hope you enjoy them as much as I do. I've been wearing my pair alot. It's getting cold out there.

Yea I thought about that, but I don't have sugru and I like how thin they are ATM, any bigger would press on my helmet ear protectors, and it's getting freezing! But they are the best thing for skiing Ive tried!

thanks WhiteTech. I wish I still lived around a mountain to try that out. They came in real handy the other day doing so yard work. Super comfortable. I hate earbuds in cold ears. Or earbuds with muffs over them, very painful. Thanks for checking it out and cool stove. Way to go on throwing a title on your cover pic!

Heh, thanks! I was hoping it would help get it noticed, apparently it did!Ive seen mods like this done to helmets, but this is so much better. Plus hopefully it will cut some of my ear protector wind noise from 80km/h+ speeds down the hill!